Drug manufacturer, representative, agent, or employee - prescription drug marketing - disclosure of drug information required. The act requires a drug manufacturer, or a representative, agent, or employee of the manufacturer, who while employed by or under contract to represent a manufacturer engages in prescription drug marketing, to provide to a prescriber, in writing, the wholesale acquisition cost of a prescription drug when, in the course of conducting business, the manufacturer, representative, agent, or employee provides information concerning the drug to the prescriber. The act also requires the drug manufacturer, or a representative, agent, or employee of the manufacturer, to also disseminate the names of at least 3 generic prescription drugs from the same therapeutic class, or if 3 are not available, as many as are available for prescriptive use. Specified provisions of the act are contingent upon House Bill 19-1172 becoming law. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Sponsored bills
Health care providers' accountability to communities - community health needs assessments - community benefit implementation plans - public meetings. The act requires the following hospitals to complete a community health needs assessment every 3 years and an annual community benefit implementation plan every year: A hospital that is licensed as a general hospital and exempt from federal taxation; A hospital established pursuant to the Denver health and hospital authority; and A hospital established pursuant to the University of Colorado hospital authority. Each such hospital must report to the department of health care policy and financing (department) concerning certain community benefits, costs, and shortfalls in the preceding year, and the department is required to submit an annual summary report to subject matter committees of the general assembly. Hospitals that are licensed as general hospitals but that are not required to report may report in like fashion. The department shall develop and provide a website at which each reporting hospital shall submit reports. The act requires each hospital to convene a public meeting at least once each year to seek feedback regarding the hospital's community benefit activities during the previous year and the hospital's community benefit implementation plan for the following year. Each hospital shall invite representatives from certain local entities and state agencies to participate in the meeting. Each hospital shall also invite the general public to the meeting in an advertisement placed in any major newspaper published in the hospital's community. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Student loan servicers - license requirement - regulation by assistant attorney general - appropriation. The act requires an entity that services a student education loan owned by a Colorado resident to be licensed by the administrator of the "Uniform Consumer Credit Code". "Servicing" means receiving a scheduled periodic payment from a student loan borrower, applying the payments of principal and interest with respect to the amounts received from a student loan borrower, and similar administrative services. The act specifies particular acts that are required of or prohibited by student loan servicers and the administrator's powers and duties. Violation of the licensing law is a deceptive trade practice. The act also creates a student loan ombudsperson to provide timely assistance to student loan borrowers. $115,273 is appropriated to the department of law from the general fund to implement the act. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Current law requires counties to give an indigent deceased person final disposition. The county may be reimbursed for this cost so long as the cost does not exceed $2,500, but if the cost exceeds $2,500, the county is not reimbursed. The bill: Raises this amount to $3,000; and Allows the county to be reimbursed, up to $3,000, when the cost exceeds $3,000.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.) Read More
Section 1 of the bill authorizes payments from an existing fund for administrative expenses of the public utilities commission (PUC) to defray the costs incurred by the department of public health and environment and any other state agencies in reviewing clean energy plans submitted under section 3 of the bill. Section 2 repeals laws that allow an electric utility to own, as rate-based property, new eligible energy resources without competitive bidding if certain conditions are satisfied. Section 3 supplements the existing renewable energy standards statute by establishing targets for the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation by utilities serving more than 500,000 customers, with the opportunity for other utilities to opt in. The targets are: By 2030, an 80% reduction in carbon dioxide emission levels compared to 2005 levels; and For 2050 and thereafter, a goal of a 100% reduction in carbon dioxide emission levels. Section 3 also directs qualifying retail utilities to submit plans to the PUC as part of their ongoing resource acquisition planning process to address the clean energy targets. A clean energy plan must detail the actions and investments the utility intends to undertake, including specifying the new resources and infrastructure proposed to be used; the anticipated effects of the plan on the safety, reliability, and resilience of the overall electric system; the methods proposed for measuring carbon dioxide reductions; and the costs of implementation, which must be reasonable. The approval process also includes participation by the division of administration within the department of public health and environment regarding the measurement of carbon dioxide emission reductions and predictions as to whether the clean energy plan will achieve the desired reductions. A utility implementing a clean energy plan may recover its costs of implementation through rates, as approved by the PUC, and own any generating resources and infrastructure necessary to effectuate the plan. The utility is required to use a competitive bidding process to fill the cumulative resource need identified in its next electric resource plan that includes a clean energy plan filed after January 1, 2020. Each utility that receives approval of a clean energy plan is required to report to the governor, the general assembly, the PUC, and the air quality control commission on a list of matters, including its progress in implementing the plan and in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. To address Colorado's relative lack of seamless integration into the national energy grid, the PUC is directed to open an investigatory proceeding to evaluate the costs and benefits associated with regional transmission organizations, energy imbalance markets, joint tariffs, and power pools. Section 4 strengthens an existing provision requiring electric resource acquisition decisions to be made with consideration of "best value" employment metrics and the use of Colorado labor by requiring a utility to obtain and provide to the PUC relevant documentation on these topics, including the availability of apprenticeship programs registered with the United States department of labor. Section 5 establishes a qualified right for a retail electric utility customer to generate, consume, store, and export to the grid any electricity produced from customer-sited renewable sources, also known as distributed generation. Section 6 adopts the "Colorado Energy Impact Bond Act" under which electric utilities may finance the retirement of fossil-fuel-powered generation facilities and the transition to renewable energy sources by issuing low-cost corporate securities. These securities, known as Colorado energy impact bonds or "CO-EI bonds," are subject to PUC approval and required to have a rating of at least AA or AA2, must have a scheduled maturity date of 32 years or less, and are repayable through rates as part of the costs of implementing a clean energy plan.(Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.) Read More
Facilities - menstrual hygiene products. The act requires the following facilities to provide whichever menstrual hygiene products are requested by a person in custody to the person in custody at no expense to the person in custody: Local jails, multijurisdictional jails, and municipal jails; Correctional facilities and private contract prisons; and Department of human services facilities. The act prohibits any facility required to provide menstrual hygiene products pursuant to the act from imposing any condition or restriction on a person's access to menstrual hygiene products. The act requires cities and counties that are seeking reimbursement from the state for maintaining people in a local jail after their sentence to the department of corrections' custody to annually report costs of menstrual hygiene products to the joint budget committee. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Certification of factory-built structures - insignias of approval. The act amends the state director of housing's authority to obtain injunctive relief to be consistent with the removal of the requirement that factory-built structures that are only substantially altered or repaired bear an insignia of approval issued by the division of housing. The act removes the requirement that factory-built structures that are manufactured or sold for transportation to and installation in another state bear an insignia of approval issued by the division of housing and the requirement that factory-built structures that are only substantially altered or repaired in Colorado bear an insignia of approval issued by the division of housing. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
Contract performance and payment bonds. Under current law, when a person, company, firm, corporation, or contractor (contractor) enters into a contract with a county, municipality, school district, or, in some instances, any other political subdivision of the state, to perform work in connection with a project that has specified characteristics, the contractor is required to execute performance bonds and payment bonds. The act specifies that some of these bonding requirements apply to certain construction contracts situated or located on publicly owned property using public or private money or public or private financing. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More
On and after July 1, 2022, the bill requires the high-performance transportation enterprise (HPTE) to impose an express lane access fee (access fee) in a specified amount annually at the time of registration of any eligible plug-in electric motor vehicle that weighs 19,500 pounds or less, that is certified as being qualified for the federal plug-in electric drive motor vehicle tax credit or can be recharged from an external source of electricity and that stores electricity in a rechargeable battery that propels or contributes to the propulsion of the vehicle's drive wheels if the owner of the vehicle chooses to pay the access fee in exchange for the right to operate the vehicle on express lanes without regard to the number of persons in the vehicle for free on any express lane that is a high occupancy vehicle lane and for a reduced toll on any express lane that is a toll lane or a high occupancy toll lane. HPTE is not authorized to impose the access fee upon the registration of a vehicle registered for a registration period beginning on or after July 1, 2020, but before July 1, 2022, but, upon the registration of a vehicle for such a registration period, the owner of an eligible plug-in electric motor vehicle may choose to apply for the right to operate the vehicle for free on any express lane that is a high occupancy vehicle lane without regard to the number of persons in the vehicle and for a reduced toll on any express lane that is a toll lane or a high occupancy toll lane. A plug-in electric motor vehicle is an "eligible plug-in electric motor vehicle" if it is being registered for its 1st, 2nd, or 3rd registration period under the ownership of the same owner and if making the vehicle eligible would not cause the total number of eligible vehicles to exceed a specified cap that increases annually for 5 years until reaching a permanent maximum amount. "Express lane" is defined to include any high occupancy vehicle lane, toll lane, or high occupancy toll lane that HPTE, a private partner of HPTE, or HPTE in conjunction with a private partner of HPTE or the department of transportation (CDOT) operates and maintains or that HPTE designates as an express lane, which currently includes: Operating express lanes on Interstate Highway 25 between downtown Denver and 120th Avenue, on Interstate Highway 70 between Idaho Springs and Empire, and on U.S. Highway 36 between Denver and Boulder; and Planned express lanes on: (1) Interstate Highway 25 between 120th Avenue and State Highway E-470, Johnstown and Fort Collins, and Monument and Castle Rock; (2) Interstate Highway 70 between Interstate Highway 25 and Chambers Road; and (3) State Highway C-470 between Interstate Highway 25 and Wadsworth Boulevard. Each county clerk and recorder, acting as an authorized agent of the department of revenue, is required to collect the access fee, and access fee revenue is credited to the statewide transportation enterprise special revenue fund for use by HPTE. The owner of an eligible plug-in electric motor vehicle may choose not to pay the access fee, but must pay the fee to be authorized to operate the vehicle for free on any express lane that is a high occupancy vehicle lane and for a reduced toll on any express lane that is a toll lane or a high occupancy toll lane, without regard to the number of persons in the vehicle. If the free or reduced toll use of express lanes by eligible plug-in electric motor vehicles is determined to cause a decrease in the level of service for other bona fide users of the express lanes so that CDOT or HPTE is violating or will violate within the next 3 months contractual level of service guarantees or will be unable to satisfy debt service coverage requirements, then CDOT may restrict or eliminate free and reduced toll use of the express lanes by eligible plug-in electric motor vehicles for as long as the violation or inability is expected to continue. CDOT is required to report annually during its "State Measurement for Accountable, Responsive, and Transparent (SMART) Government Act" hearing regarding the actual and projected free and reduced toll use of express lanes by eligible plug-in electric vehicles and any actions that it has taken or expects to take to restrict, limit, or restore such use. The existing authorization for a limited number of inherently low-emission vehicles or hybrid vehicles to use express lanes without regard to the number of persons in the vehicle and without paying a toll expires for each participating vehicle on the date of the first registration of the vehicle for a registration period that begins on or after July 1, 2022. The department of revenue and CDOT are required to coordinate to establish electronic processes that: Automatically notify HPTE and, if deemed necessary by HPTE, any private partner of HPTE that operates an express lane, when the owner of a plug-in electric motor vehicle pays the access fee so that HPTE, directly or through its private partners, can successfully administer and enforce the conditions of access for eligible plug-in electric motor vehicles to express lanes; and Automatically notify each authorized agent when the access fee can or cannot be collected in accordance with the limitation on the number of eligible plug-in electric motor vehicles. CDOT is authorized to promulgate administrative rules to ensure proper implementation, administration, and enforcement of the conditions of access for eligible plug-in electric motor vehicles to express lanes. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.) Read More
Income tax - retrofits to an individual's residence for increased visitability - tax credit available for qualified individual's dependent. The act clarifies that the income tax credit for retrofitting a residence for increased visitability is available for changes made to a residence that benefit a qualified individual's dependent.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.) Read More